Writer Damon Lindelof has confirmed that HBO’s upcoming television adaptation of the Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons graphic novel Watchmen will be set in the present day — and it won’t be a direct adaptation of the comic’s original story.

More details are in the linked article.

Lindelof's decision to set the series in modern times has made a YouTube critic describe it as Watchmen in name only. Does anyone share the critic's negative opinion? Or do you believe Lindelof will succeed in making Alan Moore's graphic novel "resonate with the frequency of Trump and May and Putin and the horse that he rides around on, shirtless," in Lindelof's own words?

That Lindelof is attached is a warning sign, as his writing, like Abrams, requires a mystery box, and the work suffers for it. See Star Trek Into Darkness, Tomorrowland, and Lost for how his version of story structure is very reserved about exposition, nonsensical plots, and making things a mystery when they don't have to be.

If it's not a direct adaptation of the comic's original story, I think there's a good reason to call it Watchmen in name only.

Some things you can get away with a loose adaption (like the Dresden Files, give him a monster-of-the-week thing and Murphy and it works if it had got more that 12 damn episodes) but Watchmen is feel is it's story and original plot in a lot more real way, if that makes any sense.

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Watchmen is a story really steeped in it's time. Removing it from the 80s undermines the story in a host of ways. The Cold War era paranoia alone is essential to the story. You can make something Watchmen inspired and have it set and be in the modern day and not suck, but there's no way you can do something like a close adaption and have it be worth the effort.

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It's a commentary about Superhero comics and their publishing model. The central thesis is that a novel structure with a defined beginning, middle, and end allows the medium to reach greater heights of expression than the incessant need to perpetuate the same characters in a never ending franchise which means every story will be robbed of its power as time and publication grinds on.

"Exploring the universe of Watchmen", as Lindelof has threatened to do, misses the point of the work in spectacular fashion.

As others have noted, Watchmen is a contained story and also a critical look at the comic book worldbuilding and character-building, allowing more realistic implications of contrived comic book plots and an end to the story which does not require any continuation or re-imagining.

It is a strength of the work, not a weakness.

There's no need for 10 versions of Watchmen, it's not fucking Superman and that's the whole point of it... *shrugs*